Joey Bada$$ spitting over an MF DOOM beat? Call “Amethyst Rockstar” a no-brainer. Something about Joey’s Brooklyn drawl just sounds so at home when accompanied by the legendary producer’s trademark backpacking-meats-early-Wu-Tang sound. And shouts to Kirk Knight, a relative newcomer to most (myself including). He really held his own with the kid many are hailing as the future of East Coast Hip-Hop.

Is this a new DOOM beat…or at least, one not from the Special Herbs collection? What MC has been able to get anything new out of Metal Fingers in a while?

I like this a lot. Joey annoys me sometimes and I can get bored with “rap republicans” but Joey clearly has enough flow and skill he could have hung in the era he is revering so hard. As far as dudes too preoccupied with their idols and the past go, I’d rather listen to Joey than J. Cole at this point.

It’s a Special Herbs beat. I only heard two rappers use this beat. John Robinson ([www.youtube.com]) and Trunks ([www.youtube.com]) and both of them worked with MF DOOM at one point. John Robinson’s version came out first, but Trunks spazzed on the beat by rapping using nothing but superhero metaphors. Shit’s crazy.